Man, I hate bowling...

[Pilotsteve]

Well guys, I went for a nice drive today with my girl through upstate New York and Vermont. On the way back home I stopped by a small hunting shop I knew of off to the side of the road. The place specializes in bowhunting, clothing, and trapping supplies but they also have a decent rack of shotguns and a wall stocked with ammo. I asked the clerk if they had any of the Coppersolid sabot rounds we talked about earlier. He said, "No, but I have these"...



I bought two boxes. A nice 1 oz. (437 grain!) solid copper sabot slug leaving the barrel at 1530 feet per second. I suspect these should deliver satisfying results to that bowling ball. They'd better... at $18.00 for a box of 5, that's $3.60 each!

One question for the experienced - the box states, "Use in fully rifled barrels only." Why so? I have only two smoothbore barrels for my Mossberg - one with a choke and the other just a plain 'ole pipe. I suspect it's because these rounds are designed for great distance shots and have no integral rifling built in. After a very short distance such an unrifled bullet would begin to tumble and suffer a terrible accuracy penalty. But for my short range shot, I have a feeling I'll be just fine using these. Thoughts?

-Pilotsteve

[Rothenfluh]

At the distance I presume you will issuing the whoop ass, I would think using a smooth bore should present no issues.

Can't wait for the video. I mean, just so we can validate it really took place...


R

[roadkill45]

use the smooth tube you have. will ruin your choke maybe with the other barrel. you are correct about the rifling, 150 yards is my usual with sabots, but launching a few down a non choked barrel at your close distances you should be able to hit it. shoot from cover cause that ball and the frags from that round are going everywhere. maybe a Mythbusters blast shield!!

[Pilotsteve]

Thanks for the tips and insight, my friends. Rothenfluh, worry not. I've got a couple of digital cameras available and will definitely be posting a very nice video-graphic record of my exodus from the game of bowling. I have (ahem) two bowling balls to pulverize - the first one gets the big bomb from these sabot rounds and the second gets whittled away with a combination of PPK and P38 fury. Four magazines for the PPK and two through the P38 (I need more ). 25 9mm kurz plus 17 more 9mm Luger bullets impacting the second ball should be most satisfying.

Roadkill, I'll be donning my motorcycle gear for the shot. A Kevlar jacket with my helmet on, shield closed. Carbon fiber shielded gloves, the gamut. It should protect me from splinters as well as potential bullet fragments. I'll look like one of the power rangers, but at least I'll be protected. I'll also take shielding by standing behind something substantial, too. Believe me, I'm well aware of the effects of blast splinters...

Of course, one of these monster slugs I bought yesterday had to be sacrificed to science, so here it is... and what a monster it is. This is one bad-a$$ thing nothing wants to have hurtling toward it at 1530 feet per second:

Cut in half, showing the independent wadding and the sabot encasing the bullet:


Whoa. Once that combination leaves the barrel, the sabot petals peel back and release that brutal mass of solid copper:




Next to a dime:


These brutes will definitely deliver a major whollup to that ball; the kinetic energy released will be tremendous. I intend to take the shot from about 5 meters (16 feet) or so. The only thing left now is the wait. the anticipation. I apologize for this, but I'm obligated to complete this one last season of fooze-pins. But, to quote Dr. Hannibal Lecter, "All good things come to those who wait..."

-Pilotsteve

[Conman37]

OKAY, now speak up.

How do you really FEEL ABOUT BOWLING??????????????

[Pilotsteve]

You'll just have to wait, Conman. Tomorrow is yet another Monday, and with it another week passing before das ende of bowling for me. Only then will you really be able to have the answer to your query.


Seriously, has nobody else here taken out something that's frustrated them to no end... something that you just couldn't fix, figure out, or gave you nothing but trouble from the start? I cannot believe nobody here had every taken a rifle to one of those cheap Wal-Mart Chinese-made Poulan weed-wackers that just wouldn't start. Has nobody here ever had a grand old time with a pistol and an old junk ex-car of theirs? I believe there is a certain sense of satisfaction in finally accepting defeat, knowing when you're proven wrong, and accepting it as a learning experience. I know I'm never going to be any good at bowling. I don't enjoy it, I don't understand the scoring, and I simply don't care for it as a sport on a fundamental basis.

I like the old saying, "If at first you don't succeed, try try again!" Later, someone ingeniously rephrased it to, "If at first you don't succeed, try try again - if you still you don't succeed, give up and quit wasting your time!" There's a certain beauty to the latter. In my case, I simply want a big boom to go with it - a little bit of theatrics. It'll give everyone a good laugh at the banquet after the season, too. It's all in fun, in the end. Right?

-Pilotsteve

[Rothenfluh]

Does somebody make solid slugs for a 10 gauge?

Hey Steve, you ought to set it on fire before you shoot it! Flaming chunks of bowling ball flying through the air...set to the music of "Ride of the Valkyries"!!!

You Tube

You Tube

It would be epic.


R

[bigfatdave]

Originally Posted by Pilotsteve

Seriously, has nobody else here taken out something that's frustrated them to no end... something that you just couldn't fix, figure out, or gave you nothing but trouble from the start? I cannot believe nobody here had every taken a rifle to one of those cheap Wal-Mart Chinese-made Poulan weed-wackers that just wouldn't start.

Worn out cookware
Old shoes
Auto/bike parts
Produce

I'll blast at anything I can clean up from the berm, generally.

[MLB]

"If at first you don't succeed..." then skydiving is not for you.

[Pilotsteve]

I can remember shooting rotten potatoes with my old Daisy 10-pump bb gun when I was a kid. A frozen winter morning, still dark out... I opened up the cupboard to look for a box of cereal in my pajamas and noticed a few of the potatoes in the bag on the floor were nasty. "Dad! Look at these yucky potatoes!"

We had a blast, literally. I was about 7 or 8 years old and was entrusted to my BB gun to see if I could knock them off the fence from about 20 meters. I hit a few before my fingers were numb and my toes stiff. It was about -40 C that morning, so cold the moisture in the air froze into microscopic needle-like crystals... the air so frigid and dense the wood smoke from the chimney merely rolled down the roof of the camp like a thin liquid, spilling onto the ground like a slow-motion waterfall.

I went back inside to warm up, the smell of bacon, coffee and toast thick in the air. That's when my Dad and his brothers went out with the Lee-Enfield, the Ithica shotgun, and Springfield 1903. I watched them through frosted windows and can still remember the concussions from their shots. I wanted to grow up so bad. I wanted to be able to go out there and have fun like the "big boys".

Well, I'm 39 years old now. And week 21 of 29 is in the books. My scores last night were... typical.



Even "V" is better than me. And "Vacancy" doesn't even exist! But I do.

-Pilotsteve